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TODAY'S WEATHER.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9.— Forecast
for Sunday: ■
For Minnesota: Generally Fair;
southerly winds; warmer.
For lowa and South Dakota: Slightly
warmer; west to south winds.
For Wisconsin: Fair: westerly winds.
For North Dakota: Warmer; fair
tv eat her; -southerly winds.
For Montana: Fair; warmer in south
fin portion; southwesterly winds.
TEMPERATURES.
"Place. Tern. Place. Tern.
Buffalo 'iv— M Montreal 32— 4i>
Boston 16— 56 New Orleans.
Cheyenne 36 — "S New York ...GO— o2
Chicago 34— SG Pittsburg . . . .;C— tits
DAILY MEANS.
Barometer, 30.31; thermometer, 26;
relative humidity, 82; wind, northeast;
weather, clear; maximum thermom
eter. 35; minimum thermometer. IS:
daily range, 17; amount of rainfall or
melted snow In last twenty-four hours,
trace.
RIVER AT 8 A. M.
Gauge. Danger Height of
Reading. Line. Water. Change.
St. Paul 14 1.5 •<".*.
La Crosse ......10 1.5 *0.1
Davenport 30 2.6 —0.1
St. Louis 30 2.6 *0.2
"Rise. —Fall. - *
Note— Barometer corrected for tem
perature and elevation.
P. F. LYONS.
Observer.
SEVEN "MAIDS WITH SEVEN* MOPS.
It is less amusing than pitiful to
read most of the replies gathered in
by the special correspondent of the
Globe, Mr. Frank G. Carpenter, in
response to the inquiry, "If women
came to congress, what would be the
result?" It is pitiful because it shows
what a vast amount of misdirected
energy there is in the world, and
how still vaster is that dense cloud
of misapprehension of the meaning
of institutions and the causes of their
weakness that still enshrouds us.
The majority of the earnest men and
men who answer this question ap
pear to have got no further than ifche
mechanical view of society and the
state. It is to them a big machine,
and its working depends not at all
on the quality of. the material or the
adaptation of parts, or the supply of
power, but only on getting the ma
chine, to going. Everything that is
wrong with the people and their mor
als and their politics could be cured
in an instant ..by a process of im
provement in the machine, if only
consent to that could be secured.
This notion, that some simple me
chanical change could suddenly re
form and reconstitute a humanity
that has been struggling with the
primal forces of greed and lust and
sloth and cruelty and injustice for
untold centuries, is a conception so
monstrously unnatural that the won
:ler is how it ever came to lodgmenit
In any adult mind, It belongs to the
wonderlands of Alice. The Walrus
and the Carpenter hit it off exactly:
"They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand,
i If this were only swept away.
They said it would be grand."
The Walrus, which is clearly the
woman suffrage element, was of the
opinion ithat the thing might be done,
"if seven maids, with seven mops,
swept it for half a year." The Car
penter, that unfeeling male, claimed
the privilege of the doubt, "and
dropped a bitter tear." The sands of
the seashore, he thought, were proof
against even the mopping of the
maidens. And so is congress. When
will people learn, bright, energetic,
hopeful people, who ought to be help
ful as well, that we have all of us
embarked in one lifeboat in this re
publican experiment of ours? There
are no life-preservers on board. We
■sink or live together; and the fate of
one of us is 'the fate of all. Out
congress, which is chosen by the peo
ple, is and must be a body fairly
representative of the people. It is
that, mentally and morally, as well
as politically. For the people can
make it exactly what they please. Aft
any election they have the matter
wholly in their hands. Therefore the
men whom they permit to go there
are the men who fitly represent the
average of -their constituencies..
This is true now of women also.
Congress represents the average of
their public aims and of what they
require in public men, as well as it
does the male average. For, again,
men are, more than anything else,
what women desire them to be. The
most imperious men who ever swayed
the fortunes of the world were at a
.woman's call, and would lose or leave
it all did she bid them. The influ
ence of woman has increased vastly
in modern .times, and with the new
order.. Without casting a ballot they
can, as' they will, turn the tides of
thought and action. The men are
few who may not be made, in public
life, what a high-souled woman
would have them be, if she cares to
have them different. So, were wom
en eligible to congress, such change
as would occur is aptly described in
what most of these correspondents
mention. There would be fewer spit
toons and less tobacco smoke, and
that would be about all. The ideal
woman would not be sent there, any
more than the ideal man is now; un
til the average choices of the com
munity in all things became Ideal. It
is that average standard that deter
mines the resultant of the forces of
universal suffrage. By elevating it,
THE SAINT! FA CX BAtt/. GLOBE: SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 10. • 1805.— TWENTY PAGES,
women may do all. that they could
do if their dreams were fact instead of
fancy. Of ail-that they would sac
rifice, of what would happen to the
home, and -to' the "man, and most
terrible of all to the children, parents
of the men and women of the future,
while wives and mothers were ply
ing their mops upon the sand dunes
of our public life, it would.be un
pleasant as well as unprofitable to
speak. All reforms are apt to show
a mirage to the wistful eye. None
is more elusive or more truly a
creature of the empty air than the
vain imagining of a reformation in
public character and a transforma
tion of the individual by a mere
change in the operation of govern
mental machinery that would leave
the individual unchanged except,
mayhap, for the worse.
*m —
CRITICISM OF THE SCHOOIJS.
Considerable has been said lately
for and against the methods used in
the schools of St. Paul. Some com
munications published elsewhere re
fer to the unfairness of the attack;
and one of them, flatly repudiat
ing statements credited publicly
to the writer, seems to show
that the Dispatch must at
least have been the victim "of
an extraordinary imposition. The
Globe is not engaged in the busi
ness of either assailing or defending
the conduct of our public schools,
but is anxious to present in that con
nection, as in every other, the un
colored facts in the case. There is
no other department of public affairs
in which it is so easy to evoke dis
content or to find willing critics of
what is or is not done. Only a few
persons, compared with our whole
population, are touched directly by
what goes on in the board of public
works, or the park board, or the city
engineer's office; but the parents of
nearly 20,000 school children all feel
that the work of the schools interests
them personally. Of those parents,
an astonishingly small number have
ever entered a school building, heard
a recitation, or familiarized them
selves with the methods of instruc
tion in vogue. Among the pupils of
the schools there must be a consid
erable element who are backward in
their studies, either through lack of
application or natural deficiency. It
is the first inclination of the parent
to attribute this to improper meth
ods of instruction. The rare excep
tion, in the experience of most teach
ers, is the father or mother 'who is
willing to admit that any fault can
lie possibly in the child. Given all
these conditions, it is the simplest
matter in the world. at any time to
start a crusade of criticism against
the public schools.
This being the case, it is the part
of those who love justice, as well as
of those who desire to - raise our
schools to the highest level of effi
ciency, not to lend themselves to gen
eral accusation, but to try to get at
facts. So far as we have seen, the
commonest complaint is that the chil
dren who leave the schools are not
sufficiently well grounded in the ele
mentary branches -of • °y common
school education. We have"'no doubt
that this is true. But it is a fact
which is not peculiar to the schools
of St. Paul, nor to those of any other
city or state in the Union. Heads
of business houses will say that
young men who enter their employ
ment after leaving the public schools
are frequently unable to write a
business letter, to spell with decent
correctness, or to use figures rapidly
or accurately. Precisely the same
facts are reported by a committee of
investigation at Harvard university,
who find the students there lament
ably deficient an . the elementary
branches. The trouble, so far as it
exists, appears to be inherent in
the school system of the whole
United States. We believe it is true
that American school . children gen
erally are not grounded with proper
thoroughness in these branches. It
is not -due, however, as a rule, so
much to incompetent instructors or
improper methods as to the graded
system.
Where the graded system prevails,
it is practically impossible to make
instruction thorough without injust
ice to the pupil. A large majority of
children display at an early age some
special aptitude. The natural devel
opment of a child's mind is rarely
symmetrical. He is more interested
in one study than another, and makes
more rapid progress. Now, to take
a concrete instance, if a boy is slow
at arithmetic and quick and bright
in his other studies, it is necessary.un
der the graded system, either to keep
him In one room for many years,
grinding away at arithmetic after he
is thoroughly familiar with every
thing else taught in his class, and
thus take a year or two out of his
school life in behalf of a single study
for which his faculties are not yet
well developed, or else to pass him
on to the next grade with an in
sufficient knowledge of arithmetic.
What is true of one pupil in connec
tion with this study is true of an
other in spelling, of another in writ
ing, and so on. The graded system
either forbids all advancement or
necessitates promotions before some
particular branch or branches have'
been thoroughly mastered. This, it
seems to us, is the most reasonable
explanation of the admitted lack of
thoroughness in the elements which
characterizes the . instruction in the
public schools of every state and city
in the United States.
The only fair question to ask, then,
Is not, are the pupils perfectly famil
iar with the elementary branches,
but are the children who go out from
our schools today less well grounded
or better, than those ..who went out
from the schools of ten, twenty or
thirty years ago? 'What' the answer
to this will be, no intelligent person
can for a moment doubt. • The strug
gle between methods has been in be
half of those which it was believed
would accomplish more in' the same
retime than those which they supplant
ed. In addition to this, 'arid even
more Important, is the effort -to com
bine with the old system, limited to
the three Rs, Instruction In other de
partments of knowledge. " When all
of our Institutions for higher educa
tion have yielded to a public opin
ion 'that demanded the substitution
of scientific work for a part of the
Latin, Greek and mathematics of the
rigid old curriculum, it seems ration
al that science lessons should begin
early In the child's instruction.
The contention of those who believe
that public school education has ad
vanced Immensely, Instead of reced
ing, is that the three Rs are taught
with as much thoroughness as ever,
if not more; while, in 'addition to
them, the pupil receives other in
struction of the highest practical
value, present and future. One
thing, at least, is certain; "and that
is that the twelve or thirteen-year
old boy or girl of today in the public
schools knows more about our. own
history and that of England, more
about the best American and En-,
glish literature, and more about the
world in which he lives than did the
average high school graduate or col
lege freshman of a quarter of a cen
tury ago. The single question then, .
we repeat, is, has this gain been at
the cost of thoroughness in what
are called the three elementary
branches? Does the average pupil
in any grade of the public schools
know less about these today than
the average pupil in the same grade
knew twenty-five or thirty years
ago? Leaving out of consideration
the country school, Where the graded
system does not limit individuality,
and comparing only institutions
where there is a regular progression
from class to class, the comparison
will probably be found as favorable
to the schools of the present in this
particular as it unquestionably is .in
those other matters which are essen
tial to a real education.
CONCERNING AMERICAN" HUMOR:
In the currenlt number of the North
American Review appears an article
by the lamented Prof. Boyesen upon
"The Plague of Jocularity." Prof.
Boyesen was almost ideally qualified
for a critic of American life and its
characteristics; both by virtue of his
keen yet kindly critical Insight, and
by the fact 'that while he had been
among us so long as to be of us and
to count himself thoroughly an '
American, he yet retained enough of
the point. of view of one born under
other skies to* give him a more defi
nite consciousness of our salient
points than a native is likely to. at
tain.
Aflter. experience of . twenty-six
years among us he pronounced jocu
larity the most pervasive trait of the
American character, but did not find
it wholly admirable. Excellent as
humor is for seasoning, he felt that
we invert its proper relation and
make it the' dish instead of the flavor-,,
ing spice. He also held it responsi
ble for the death of the Websterian
school of eloquence, and to blame in
some measure for the fact that ra
tional interchange of thought is be
coming one of the lost arts.
The, truth of this arraignment is.
undoubted, but our own explanation
of the - extraordinary prevalence of
the jocular attitude in America would
be somewhat different from that of
the article, which suggests tentative
ly the stimulating influence of the
climate upon all brain activity, but
especially its complex forms; ''that
democratic spirit which makes every
man his neighbor's superior," and
the high average of physical, com
fort, tending to cheerfulness, as pos
sible causes. It is true that the jest,
good, bad and indifferent, but chiefly
the latter, is everywhere among us.
Like oxygen in the air and microbes
in the water, lit is a thing that is one
of the coiindiltions of our environ
ment; but this, we take it, is due to
the fact that our national life has
been a difficult one, rather than -to
its ease.
Run over our national history
and see how full of stress
it has been. From the time
when the pilgrim fathers land
ed on Plymouth Rock, American
existence has been strenuous. First,
the life of the individual was har
assed by climate, famine, Indian
warfare and religious intolerance;
later, as these difficulties were grad
ually conquered, came the exhaust
ing struggle for national independ
ence, and then the effort of an im
poverished nation to re-establish its
solvency;- after that, more wars; a
peaceful interval covering a part of
the first half of the century, then
the protracted anti-slavery agitation
and the black days of civil war with
their devastation and upheaval, and
finally the development in the last
thirty years of the principle of com
petition to such an extent that, while
the individual has never had more
opportunities, the process of seizing
them and keeping up with his neigh
bors holds him constantly on the
rack. - -..
Humor is developed in a people of
such strenuous life by the simple
principle of the survival of the fit
test. "The man who has some barrier
he can set up against the deadly seri
ousness of existence endures the
stress of it best. Humor is the best
breakwater, against such troublous
surges as beat upon us all. The man
with a sense of humor lives most
comfortably and longest, leaving a
progeny from among whom the law
of natural selection will certainly
choose the most jocular as fittest to
survive and carry on the struggle
which is growing increasingly diffi
cult.
In support of this view of the de
velopment of jocularity may be cited
the proverbial belief that women
have no sense of humor. Up to the
present they have not been thrown
into the thick of the competitive
struggle, that is, into the environ
ment where a sense of humor be
comes a necessity of life. The evo
lutionist would, of course, account
for our position as the pre-eminently
humorous nation :by the ; fact thai,
owing to our democratic institutions,
all men enter upon the struggle for
existence upon mora equal terms
here than elsewhere. The whola'
field Is open to all competitors; and,
whi'.e opportunities are more numer
ous, competition is fiercer than in
the countries where men live their '-
lives out in approximately the sta
tion to which ithey were born. • v
Considering all he has *&m$
through, it Is no wonder that U$ c -*1
Sam is instinctively deplotedV as*
wrinkled, yet smiling. He has had
enough to make him oarewornjj l£t
us be thankful that still he ' *__n
laugh! yys^J
- ANARCHY IN TURKEY. V
The demoralization of the Turkish
empire seems to have become com-
plete. That edifice of power, built/
upon a system of universal corrupt
tion and oppression, crumbles at the/
touch of the world's opinion. As
long as the sultan's government pro-;
yoked no remonstrance or interfer-\
euce from the other powers, he was'
able to maintain the vicious system
which had become a second nature
to his subjects, and which the fatal
ism of their religion induced them to
accept as the inevitable. The outburst
of their baser passions against the
Armenians roused the anger of Eu
rope and touched the sympathies of
Christendom. To his amazement,
Turk found that the authorities, who
represented to him infallible power,
were weakening and yielding to the
demands of nations which he had
been taught; to despise. In a moment
he lost some thing, of respect for his
own rulers, and, at the same time,
became more deeply embittered
against the innocent causes of his
humiliation. So new atrocities
against the Armenians have followed
side by side with local insurrections
against the power of the sultan him
self. The subjects of the Ottoman
empire; have no use for a govern
ment that 1 ; cannot permit them to
gratify their hatred of the Christian,
and that is, itself, at least outward
ly, obedient to the word of command
given by Europe.
So all restraint vanishes in both di
rections in. Turkey. The sultan loses
the reverential obedience of his own
subjects. The subject loses respect
for. his sovereign, while his deep
seated antipathies grow more intense
and demand a bloodier gratification.
There is no longer the semblance of
decent authority ln Turkey. The
outward yielding of the sultan to the
demands of the powers told the peo
ple of his weakness, and they are
ready to rise against him. He is so
licitous only for his own safety, and
knows not what to do between the
demands of the powers on the one
side and the alienation of his rebel
lious people on the other. There is
no power competent to restore order
or to protect life or property in Tur
key but the power of the allied forces
of Europe. The country is in a con- ,
dition of practical anarchy. It will
grow worse and worse until order
shall be restored by Europe.
Every day of waiting only adds to
the final difficulties of the act, and.
multiples the sufferings of the peo
pie in a country where government
has virtually ' ceased 'to exist.' ' :1 It is
no longer the sentiment of sympathy
with oppressed Christians which de
mands the suppression of Turkish
rule and the substitution of some
kind of European protectorate, but
.it is the first requirement of even
semi-civilized peoples; namely, the
establishment of some respect for law
and order. The problem is presented
clearly and simply to the world. An
archy rules in. Turkey. It is for the
nations of the world, who have
learned respect for law, to take this
savage community in hand, and to
establish there the beginnings 'Of or
der without' which both civilization
and liberty are empty and unmean
ing terms. - . - -X y
-^fc-
THE RAM KATAHDIN.
March, 1862, saw two events that
have since worked a revolution in
naval construction. When the Manas
sas steamed out of Norfolk and drove
her iron prow into the wooden sides
of the Cumberland, crushing them
like an eggshell under a hammer,
the ram was added to the equipment
of battle ships. When, the next day,
the Monitor met her in Hampton
roads and drove her, disabled, back
into her shelter, the day of the wood
en ship passed away forever. Now,
thirty-three years after the efficacy
of the ram was shown, we have its
specialization in the Katahdin. The
ram prow is familiar enough. Hard
ly a battle ship is built without one.
But it has been considered as a su
bordinate matter, reliance being
placed on armor and projectiles.
The Katahdin is solely a ram. It
carries no battery except four six
pound guns, designed merely to de
fend against torpedo boats. The tur
tle-back shape of the Monitor is pre
served, and this is coated with six
inch armor, the curvature presenting
a glancing surface for the balls of
the enemy's cannon. The displaces
ment is 2,183 tons, with a length oft
251 feet, a breadth of 43 and a droit
of 15 feet. The prow is massively
constructed as well to inflict injury
as to prevent the ram from the shock
of the collision. While intended for 7
coast defense, the Katahdin will, in
action, be on the offensive, seeking
the enemy, and striving to drive her ;
ram into their submerged sides. ' Jt .
Commerce as well as naval history
is replete with instances of ther
destructive effect of rams. The bat--)
tie of the passage of the forts below
New Orleans furnished instances
from both fleets of the effect of driv
ing one ship against another, wood-
en though they were. The Talla
poosa, of our own navy, went down
in a collision with a coal freighter.
Farragut rammed the Tennessee,
and the Verona went down before the
ramming of her Confederate oppon
ent. In foreign waters the sinking
of the Victoria by the Camperdown
and the loss of the Grosser Kurfurst
by. collision with the Konig- Wilhelm.;
are recent ' instances demonstrating
the ability of the ram ' to crush arid
destroy its opponent if it can get the
opportune position. But the ram is
not without its critics who point to
the instances where attempts at ram
ming have either failed or where the
injury was slight. But the proofs.
are conclusive, from intentional as
well as accidental ramming, of its
efficacy when it can deliver a fall
blow. A feature possibly overlooked
is thait in no Instance cited of the
failure of the ram was the vessel ,
solely a ram. It was a combination
of ram and projectile, with the ram
.ancillary and secondary. In the
Katahdin everything bends to the
primal purpose.
This ram is a part of our proposed
means of coast defense. Hitherto
they have been confined to land bat
teries, armed with long range pro
jectiles, and to Stevens' unfinished
floating battery for the defense of
New York harbor. Our own experi
ence ln the "rebellion showed that
land batteries could not prevent the
passing of a hostile fleet. Farragut
ran . his . fleets past Forts Jackson
and St. Philip, and past Fort Mor
gan into Mobile bay." Even the frail
Mississippi river steamers showed \
that the "cannon that lined the hills
and shore at Vicksburg were power
less to prevent their .'._• running by
them. The lesson was that any effi
cient provision for coast . defense was
in something that could act on the
offensive. The recent : trial of the
torpedo boats under Gushing, in
which they successfully eluded the
search light that swept the sea, but
failed to discover the Lilliputian as
sailant, shows how the.; true defense
is in offensive movement. So with
the Katahdin. She will, in case of
the misfortune of a war with some
foreign naval power, defend the coast
by moving out and * attacking the
enemy that threatens it. She is an
experiment, it is true, but the prob
abilities are in her favor.
TREATY LIMBER. "'
Why should it be so difficult to get
rid of treaties or parts of treaties
that are believed to be against the
general welfare, when the abrogation
of them requires nothing more than
a -formal declaration that,' after a
certain day, they will cease ' to be
effective? It is a curious thing that
it seems to . be easier to dispose of
a dead law by passing a repeal bill
through a legislature and having it
signed by an executive, than it is
to cut away, the useless lumber of
dead treaties after the circumstances
out of which they arose have disap
peared. Take this agreement, for in
stance, between Great Britain and
the United States, that neither shall
maintain war vessels on the great
lakes. A great deal of discussion is
going on concerning it just now, be
cause Secretary Herbert has been
obliged to refuse to permit a De
troit contractor to build some
new gunboats for us, on the ground
that our treaty arrangements forbid.
At once there springs up about this a
violent discussion, aimed at the con
clusion that we ought to go ahead
and build these war ships anyway
if we want to. Elaborate arguments
are made to show that the agree
ment was never worth anything, and
that Great Britain has so repeatedly
violated it herself that we are under
no obligation to observe it. All this
in the face of the fact that if we
do not like that arrangement, or de
sire to be free from its restrictions,
all that we have to do is to say so.
Every treaty contains within it a
time limit; and nearly, if not all, pro
vide that either of the contracting
parties may, after specified notice,
terminate the binding force of 'their
promise at pleasure. We do not be
lieve, ourselves, that anything is to
be gained by abolishing | the agree
ment in question. It is certainly to
the advantage of both nations that
there should be no ships of war on
the great lakes. The commerce of
the northern waterway has grown to
enormous proportions, the greater
part of which is now under the
American flag. If it were allowable
for England or Canada to build and
maintain war vessels on the great
lakes, we should be obliged, in self
defense, to do the same. We should
have to provide, in view of a possible
outbreak of hostilities, a lake navy
sufficient to guard and protect all
this mighty bulk of commerce. If
we did not, it would constitute a
point of weakness and an invitation
to attack. If we did, it would impose
upon us a heavy annual burden for
maintaining our lake squadrons, to
say nothing of their initial cost.
All of this it is suggested, that we
undertake for no other f" reason
than that firms at some of
our lake ports would like to be free
to accept government contracts.
There are plenty of institutions in
the country ready to . build every
thing that the government can need,
from a torpedo boat to a ship of the j
line, at short notice and for a reason
able contract sum. The proposition
td spend millions of the people's
money simply that a concern some
where on the lakes should enter into
n'.
this competition is absurd. Never
theless, it is quite as absurd, if we
wished to do this silly and expensive
thing, that we should talk about
doing it in violation of international
agreement, when that can be dis
posed of by the simple announce
ment on our part . that we do not
intend to be bound by it beyond the
date when it can be formally and
honorably renounced.
The same peculiar course has been
pursued with reference to the Clay
ton-Bulwer treaty. Here is an an
cient agreement between Great Brit
ain and the United States, looking to
a neutralisation of the canal across
the isthmus of Panama at such time
as it should be built. It was agreed
to' when both nations regarded the
control of the isthmus as a vital
point, which neither was actually
prepared to dispute openly with the
other. It has lain idle and inopera
tive until the dust of years has cov
ered it, and its terms are of no more
interest than the contents of some
old department report-stored in the
basement of the government build
ings. Still we are in honor bound
by it. We agreed to its terms, con
tainlng an explicit statement of: the
method by which, If desired, it could
be abrogated. We have taken no
steps to comply with those prescrip
tions. Although the- construction of
the Nicaragua canal has been before
congress and the country for years,'
and one bill after "another has been
presented for approval, nobody has
thought it worth while to make the
first necessary, move by proposing
the abolition, of the Claytoh-Bulwer
treaty.
These two instances show the sin
gular habit of governments, or of
our government at least, in permit
ting agreements with other nations
to remain in full force . and effect
after they have become nothing but
sources of possible embarrassment,
and although they themselves pro
vide the means by which they may
be extinguished at will. Whether
this arises from an unwillingness on
the part of the executive or of the
senate to make the first' move we do
not know. But it would be an ex
cellent idea for the senate, at its next
session, to instruct its committee on
foreign relations to go over the whole
body of treaties now in force, rec
ommending to it such as have be
come practically obsolete, and such
as interfere with the interests which
. they were intended to promote. A
formal notice could then be given to
the powers which constitute the
other parties to these agreements,
that the United States would with
draw from their stipulations at the
expiration of the term named. Nei
ther treaties nor laws that have be
come in effect a dead letter should
be permitted to remain nominally
in force. Where treaties are con
cerned, it is a question not only of
good public policy, but of national
honor. >
• '■'■y '■' mm
A NEW PAVING MATERIAL.
An extremely interesting sugges
tion is conveyed in a recent article
in the Boston Medical and Surgical
Journal on the subject of cork pave
ments. It is stated that pavements
of this kind have been put down ex
tensively in Melbourne and Sydney,
in Australia, and that a considerable
length has been laid in London and
Edinburgh. As far as reported upon,
the material has given perfect satis
faction, and removes almost every
objection that has been urged against
other pavements of wood, stone,
brick or asphalt. The description of
the new paving material says that it
is composed of granulated cork,
mixed with mineral asphalt and oth
er cohesive ingredients, and com
pressed into large blocks. These
bricks or squares consist chiefly of
the cork particles, with just enough
binding material to"*hold them firmly
together. The blocks are laid upon a
concrete base, which is now accepted
as an indispensable foundation for
any paving material, and are em
bedded in and held together by a tar
or asphalt mixture.
It is reasonable to suppose that
such a pavement* would be satisfac
tory in the respects in which pave
ments-composed of other materials
are objectionable. Brick, stone and
asphalt are all noisy. The cork pave
ment is practically noiseless, and the
first use of it in the cities of Great
Britain ■ was 'on the streets about
hospitals and asylums, where the
patients needed quiet. Asphalt par
ticularly, and brick to a lesser de
gree, are slippery in wet or sleety
weather. The cork pavement is
ideally free from this objection. The
raw material for such pavements
could be obtained in any quantity,
and at a comparatively reasonable
cost. There is but one apparent flaw,
and that is the difficulty of obtaining
any artificial material which is so
uniform throughout that it will stand
the wear of street travel without
giving way in places. Brick and as
phalt, as laid upon our streets,
are, it is true, composite. But the
main elements of this composition are
homogeneous. Whether cork and as
phalt can be so combined that all
the blocks would, possess the same
elasticity and durability, would re
main to be seen. The manifest ad
vantages of this paving material
over those now in use are, however,
so great that we have no doubt it will
have an early trial in the United
States; and we would not be sur
prised if it were finally selected as
superior to anything now in use.
— «Q
NO TIME FOR IT.
Whatever may be thought of the
merits of the proposition to furnish
free text books to the children in the
public schools of St. Paul, it ought
to be admitted by all that this is
no time 'to consider the change. The
recommendation to . that effect that
has . been . made to the board
of : school inspectors carries
with it a request for an appro
priation of $10,000. All our people are
agreed that the utmost economy
should be observed ait this time in the
conduct of our local government. Al
ready we hear, from almost every de
partment, of a desired increase In
appropriations. For one purpose or
another, most of them laudable in
themselves, it is intended to ask a
larger sum of money to be raised by
taxation. None of these demands
should be listened to this year. We
are on the road to far better times
than any we have seen for years, but
thait road follows the straight and
narrow way of retrenchment and
economy everywhere. Not to add one
penny that can be spared to the ex
pense list, and to cut off every dol
lar that can be saved. Is the right
and necessary policy.
■' If St. Paul wishes, at some future
time, to establish the free text book
system, there will be no quarrel with
it; 'but the day when it goes into oper
ation should be fixed for a time when
we shall have ample resources to
meet its requirements. It is proba
ble that this $10,000, if grartted, would
be but an entering wedge. Twice
that amount would like enough be
needed to furnish text books to all
the children in our public schools.
Just : that much . would be : added to
our annual expenditure and to the
burden of the taxpayer. The princi- .
pie of furnishing books to school chil
dren, at the expense of the commun
ity,' is open to serious question. Lay
ing that aside, however, it is enough
to say 'that this is no time to Inaugu
rate a system which, be it good or
bad, Involves a heavy additional an
nual expense. 'To cut 'down outgo
and reduce taxation is the first duty
of -the hour. Free text books can
well afford to wait their turn until
that shall have been accomplished.
THE UNNOTED ST.
We hear much of the "liners," the
"ocean greyhounds," with their great
runs across the ocean, which the
treasury subsidizes liberally so as to
have the malls carried quickly, and,
ln case of war, that the navy may
have swift cruisers. ' And we hear
much of the tourists who crowd these
floating palace's in the summer, mak
ing their flights. over the continent,
and there is lament over the tide
of gold they, set in motion to foreign
oountres. But of the more usual
craft that transport our produce to
foreign markets, without which the
greyhounds would have nothing to
do, we hear little or nothing. Their
pictures do not fill the papers nor
are their launches made much of,
with maidens breaking bottles of
champagne over their bows; neither
does a government subsidize them,
nor does the city whose name they
bear present them silver service for
their tables. They are the great pa
tient, unpretentious beasts of bur
den on the sea and share the fate of
their fellow burden bearers of the
land who are passed by in their use
ful toil by the crowd who rush to
see the racer, useless for anything
else, speed over the course.
It is worth while to turn away from
the greyhounds for a moment to con
sider the craft that are doing the
world real service in carrying in their
immense and cavernous holds the
products of our farms, cheapening
the cost of transport and benefiting
at once the producer and the con
sumer. They gat . no fancy names,
but are simply "carga boats." One
of these, the Georgic, arrived in the
Mersey lately from New York. She
Is the largest cargo boat afloat, and
she had in her hold the largest cargo
ever sent out of our commercial me
tropolis. . On her freight list were
the following products of our indus
tries:
Seven hundred and fifty cattle, 2,000
sheep, 3,000 quarters beef, 136,000 bush
els wheat, 90,000 bushels corn, 550 bales
cotton, 2,000 sacks flour, 1,800 bags oil
cake, 1,800 cases, 1,700 boxes bacon, 300
barrels and tins of provisions, 9,000
packages lard, 3,900 barrels resin, 700
barrels glucose, 1,000 cases of canned
goods, 300 packages soap, 400 barrels
wax, 300 barrels bark extract, 1,000 bar
rels lubricating oil, 100 tons wood, 3,000
packages acetate of lime, 150 barrels
oxide of zinc, and 10,000 packages of
cooperage stock.
Surely if. civilization means any
thing, if Christianity has any signifi
cance, this great freighter, carrying
from one country its surplus to make
good the deficient food supply of
other countries, is a nobler monu
ment of our progress than are the
armored battle ships on which mill
ions are squandered, or the palatial
steamships, . driven .at. railway speed
through the water, their cabins filled
with pleasure seekers. Things are
awry when the latter draw atten
tion and the cargo boats go in and
out unnoticed.
THE COLOR OF OUR SINS.
The inquisitive scientist who takes
all of life for his province has lately
been making some interesting in
vestigations into the physical effects
of various emotions. According to
the Philadelphia Press, a physician
of that city has found in his study
of the brain that each definite emo
tion produced chemical products
which are characteristic of that emo
tion; the products of evil emotions
being poisonous, while excellent emo
tions produce life-promoting com
pounds. It is to be hoped that this
discovery will bear Investigation; for
obviously it furnishes the much
needed scientific basis for the asser
tion, "Be good and you will be hap
py-"
The 'scientist in question further
claims that in the perspiration of
persons suffering from the different
emotions he has identified the dif
ferent volatile compounds character
istic of those emotions. Of all these
chemical compounds, that caused by
guilt is the worst. It is identified
by placing a small quantity of the
liquid in a glass tube and exposing
it to contact with selenic acid, when
it immediately turns pink. No other
poison similarly generated exhibits
the same results. From this fact
our irreverent contemporary deduces
the conclusion that the Biblical al
lusion to sins as scarlet is a rhetor
ical exaggeration. This by no means
follows, in spite of the well-known
fact that the Orientals have an ex
travagant fondness for strength of
color and richness of epithet. In the
slow course of the development of
the race we have succeeded in at
tenuating even to the thousandth di
lution many of the primitive pas
sions. The race, as a race, has jour
neyed, slowly and painfully, it is
true, but still a very noteworthy dis
tance, since the days of the .prophet
Isaiah. Reverently and with due ap
preciation of our own short-comings,
it may be permissible for us to hope
that, compared to . the scarlet sins
of the ancient world, our own are
only a pale pink.
■*»»»
Tom Carter thinks September will
be early enough for the Republican
national convention. The formality
of a convention might be dispensed
with altogether. Piatt, Quay and
Clarkson will settle who is to be the
candidate in conference beforehand.
"Flushing" is the art supplement
of the SundayGlobeof Nov. 17.
A small-sized • reproduction of it is
given on another page.
It is now admitted that the Indian
apolis election lacked a good deal of
indicating what it seemed to indi
cate. .. ... „>-..
"Why ail this hurrah about my de
feat? I don't dive in Ohio.— S.
Brice. ,'. Xj : '-;• __'
,:' The election, however, did not Im
prove "the chances of Levi Morton.
DEFIES TflE-EjIEJIY
PLUCKY VENEZUELA PREPAR
/ ING TO GO TO WAR AGAINST
BRITAIN.
NOT TO BE BULL"DOZED.
THREATS OK ENGLAND AROI'SB
THE LITTLE KEPI III, KM WAR
SPIRIT.
FRONTIER TO lIE PROTECTED,
Any Attempt to Selxe the DUpiu
ted Territory Will He Re*l*»ted
by a Strong Force.
-
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9.— The first
Information of 'the excited public
feeling in Venezuela, resulting from
the British demands, reached here
today in the Oaraces papers up to
Nov. 1. The prevailing sentiment
is for immediate war preparations,
although some of the Conservative
journals urge moderation. The Brit
ish ultimatum had not been received,
but the publication of its substance
aroused an outburst of patriotism.
The Diario de Caracas, a semi-offi
cial government organ, mikes what
appears to be an authoritative state
ment, -that 'the government is pre
pared for any emergency. It says:
"In case an emergency arises, and
the government of Venezuela is
obliged to resort to arms, the En
glish will be expelled from the dis
puted territory. The public may rest
assured that it will be necessary only
tor the government to send a tele
graphic dispatch to the frontier in
order to have this expulsion carried
out."
El Tiempo (Conservative) publishes
a leader on "The Defense of Gui
ana," in which it urges upon the
government the immediate dispatch
ing of 1,000 Venezuelan troops to the
frontier, in order to be ready at any
time to take posFession of the terri
tory and hold it if the English make
any move forward. A tabulated state
ment is made of the military* force
requisite. Th:s includ_?: One gen
oral in chief, two adjutants, two en
gineers, two surgeons, two assistant
surgeons, one chaplain, one inter
preter, one commissary and one sec
retary. With this staff equipment
are to be two battalions of troops,
two first and two second chiefs of
battalions, ten captains, ten lieuten
ants, twenty sub-lieutenants and one
thousand soldiers. An estimate is
made also for 3,000 uniforms of vari
ous grades. The cost of the entire
expedition is fixed at $200,640.
A NATIONAL OBLIGATION.
El Tiempo also urges the establish
ment of military colonies along the
frontier. These would draw Vene
zuelans and would provide a force
available to resist English encroach
ments. It adds: "The defense
against England is a national obli
gation. The reports from London
show that England proposes to use
force. Venezuela has done much to
ward getting ready, but she has not
yet done enough."
A strong appeal to patriotic senti
ment is made. It is pointed out that
the Agentine Republic won a war
against Great Britain, and that Mex
ico won against a combination of
France, England and Spain. The pa
per asserts 'that a people who aban
don their rights should perish from
the earth.
El Preg;nero says that the public
can be assured that an army of 100,
--000 men will be organized, with re
sources for an extensive campaign.
"Venezuela is assured," is says, "of
the moral support of the United
States and all the South American
continent. Gen. Crespo is a military
ruler of undaunted courage."
El Pregenero adds: "Let the na
tional flag of Venezuela be raised on
high as the guardian of honor, glory
and integrity of the country."
It is pointed out that there is no
need of fear of a war with England,
as it will result in an alliance of all
the American countries from the
Arctic region to Cape Horn. ThLi
unification of the Americans, says
El Pregenero, is the great question
of the twentieth century, and it will
be accomplished. The trio. ac sen
timent abounding is shown by a na
tional poem by Carlos Blunck Veloz,
sounding defiance against England.
. -***■*■■ ■
May Talk With New York.
DULUTH, Minn., Nov. 9.— A. G. Ful
ler, an official in looal and various oth
■ er telephone companies, recently in Du
j luth. said to the News-Tribune that his
j company is endeavoring to arrange to
give Duluth a long distance telephone
service, possibly within a year. Tha
j long distance wires have been steadily
| extended westward until now they
i are at Chicago and Milwaukee. The
intention is to extend the line to the
I Twin Cities from Milwaukee via Eau
Claire, Wis. The line will be run Into
Duluth from Eau" Claire, creating a Y.
and making the Wisconsin town a
junction. That will permit Duluth to
talk to the Twin Cities, Chicago and
the far East
To Start Up North Dakota Mills.
Special to the Globe.
FARGO, N. D.. Nov. 9.— Receiver H.
R. Lyon, of the North Dakota Milling
association, will file an application in a
few days asking for a receiver's bond
worth $10,000. He desires to buy wheat
for the Mandan and Bismarck mills
and If his request be granted the mills
will be In good condition and will run
all winter night and day.
Now tlie Typo Can't Tramp.
Special to the Globe.
BIRD ISLAND. Minn.. Nov. 9— O. i.
Hutchinson, a printer, who has been
employed In the Union office here foi
the past six months, attempted to gel
on the front end of the caboose of the
way freight going west this afternoon.
He lost his hold and fell, his left fool
being practically crushed by the
wheels.
Timber Thefts. .
CROOKSTON. Minn., Nov. 9 —In
spector Bone, of the general landoflice
returned home last night from near
Lake of the Woods. He reports that
very extensive timber trespasses have
been committed in that region on gov
ernment land and that investigations
will be made with a view to arrest'
and prosecutions of Canadians and
Americans engaged in the business.
A Great Insurance Company.
The Insurance departments of South
Dakota and Nebraska began an inves
tigation and examination of the North
western Mutual Life Insurance Com
pany, of Milwaukee, early In July last,
to which examination the insurance de
partments of Minnesota. Illinois and
Wisconsin were afterwards admitted
by invitation. The result of that ex
amination ls given on the fifteenth
page of this paper. The Northwestern
Mutual Life is one of the great Insur
ance companlos of the country. The
statement shows that it has assets to
the amount of $73,000,000 and a surplus
amounting to $13,500,000. Tha findings
of the insurance commissioners are
very complimentary and commenda
tory of the company, and will be rend
with Interest by all Us policy holder*
and by all who contemplate the pup
Chase of life Insurance.